Dental appliances are used for a variety of purposes and may include retainers, dentures, partial dentures, active aligners, protraction headgear, spring aligners, and the like. Users of these appliances face similar problems regardless of the type of appliance. Dental appliance users often face a problem of remembering to wear their appliance. By forgetting to wear a retainer, the user may encounter treatment setbacks such as their teeth shifting or not moving correctly requiring a lengthy and uncomfortable treatment period.
Users may also encounter the problem of remembering where they left their dental appliance. These appliances are usually expensive and difficult to replace. Much time and energy can be wasted on looking for lost appliances. If the appliance cannot be found, in addition to possible treatment setbacks, a user may be required to pay for a replacement appliance.
For dental appliances such as retainers, a user may have trouble remembering the amount of time they have been wearing their dental appliance each day. Without an accurate accounting of the amount of time the retainer has been worn, a user may also encounter treatment setbacks such as their teeth shifting or not moving correctly requiring a lengthy and uncomfortable treatment period.
Therefore, a need exists for novel apparatuses for reminding a user to wear their dental appliance. There also exists a need for novel apparatuses for preventing the loss of dental appliances. There is a further need for novel apparatuses for facilitating locating dental appliances. Finally, there exists a need for novel apparatuses for recording and reporting the amount of time a dental appliance is worn by a user.